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Accident wasn't my fault but third party won't accept liability HELP!

A few weeks ago, a car drove into me on the motorway. There are temporary narrow lanes as they are doing roadworks and someone drove into my rear wheel arch as they didn't stay in their lane.

When we pulled over, i had a massive dent and deep scratch in my car and he has no visable damage and denied driving into me. he told his insurance this, and said there was no collision as he doesn't have any damage on his car.

now i don't know what to do. my excess is £400 and the repair estimate is nearly £1000 but i refuse to have my insurance blighted by this when it wasn't my fault. if he didn't hit my car, then why did he pull over and give me all his details and then ring his insurance to report the accident?

can anyone give me any advice please as i can't stop crying everytime i have to think of this or get another call from my insurance. does anyone know where i stand and how i can make sure that it does not get reported as joint liability.

any help will be greatly appreciated. thank you

Comments

  • highet
    highet Posts: 353 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    doesnt seem to matter to insurers whether you were at fault or not - got hit by tesco lorry in january, they accepted liability and paid for repairs and refunded my excess - at renewal last month more than still reduced my supposedly protected for life bonus back to 5 years and increased the premium (i checked what it would have been with no claim) - so much for no fault claim - unfortunately looks like your insurance will be blighted regardless
  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,955 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Just let the insuance argue the case out, Either way it will affect your premium for a few years.
    Whether at fault or not. They assume you are going to have another accident and are a greater risk.
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    edited 4 December 2010 at 8:47AM
    zildjian09 wrote: »
    how i can make sure that it does not get reported as joint liability.

    The only result worthwhile having is 100% the third parties fault (anything else will result in you losing NCD (unless yours is protected) and having to pay your excess, though if liability is split you can claim the relevant proportion of that back from the third party).

    If you are convinced you can get the third party to accept full liability then you could pursue them direct and stop your claim with your own insurer (though they may have already been put to some expense, in which case you would need to reimburse them in order to retain your NCD and not be charged your excess)
  • Crabman
    Crabman Posts: 9,940 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    zildjian09 wrote: »
    he told his insurance this, and said there was no collision as he doesn't have any damage on his car.

    There must be some damage, unless the other vehicle was Knight Rider :D

    Even if there isn't superficial damage, modern cars are built to crumple easily so whilst the other party may think they can lie their way out of liability there may be damage underneath the outer cosmetic shell of their vehicle which could be useful evidence.

    Quentin mentions pursuing directly - makes me wonder whether the other party would be prepared to say these things in court as that could well be viewed by the court perjury (which comes with a free jail term).
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